Yoga and Meditation Studies: Karen O’Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe

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Sensing the Sacred

FINNIAN M MOORE GERETY

10 episodes

2 days ago

On Sensing the Sacred, we delve into the past and present of religion, politics, and society in South Asia, highlighting the latest academic research through conversations with leading scholars. A new podcast from the Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute at Brown University, hosted by Finnian M.M. Gerety.

Religion & Spirituality

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Religion & Spirituality

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Yoga and Meditation Studies: Karen O’Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe

Sensing the Sacred

46 minutes 36 seconds

4 years ago

Yoga and Meditation Studies: Karen O’Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe

What comes to mind when you hear the word “yoga”? A sequence of postures, maybe; perhaps a seated meditation. But this Sanskrit word has a history going back millennia. Yoga has been—and continues to be—a label for many different doctrines and practices; a spiritual path claimed by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, and many other groups; and a potent symbol in religion, politics and culture around the world. Growing from roots in early Indian asceticism, Yoga today is a truly global phenomenon. At the same time, yoga’s success has also fostered the rise of yoga and meditation studies as an academic discipline. Here, the tried and true methods of scholarship challenge the monolithic perception of yoga. Instead, yoga studies reveals the stunning diversity of yoga’s past and present. On this episode, Finnian talks with Karen O’Brien Kop (University of Roehampton) and Suzanne Newcombe (Open University), two scholars working at the forefront of yoga and meditation studies. Their new edited volume, the Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, is a watershed publication that reflects on key topics including decolonization, “classical yoga,” scholar-practitioners, health, and politics.

Show Notes

Find out more about this podcast and the Center for Contemporary South Asia at our show page. Make sure to check out other podcasts from the Watson Institute here. We’re eager for your feedback and support: please subscribe and then rate the show on your favorite platforms so that others can find us. You can email us at southasia@brown.edu.

Suzanne Newcombe is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, London and author of the recent monograph Yoga in Britain from Equinox Publishing; Karen O’Brien Kop is a Lecturer in Asian Religions and Ethics at the University of Roehampton, London and author of the forthcoming monograph, Rethinking ‘Classical’ Yoga and Buddhism: Mind, Metaphors and Materiality. Working together as editors, Karen and Suzanne recently published the massive Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (Routledge 2021), which we discuss at length in this conversation.